


#HoCo 2k15

by MichaelaLoell



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Marching Band, F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-06
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2018-03-06 07:49:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3126728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MichaelaLoell/pseuds/MichaelaLoell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers has been in his school's marching band for years now, and he genuinely loves it and all of the friends he's made as a result.  However, he could sometimes do without Natasha's constant perstering for him to get a date, and with his senior homecoming coming up, her efforts have practically doubled in intensity.</p>
<p>Luckily, Steve thinks he may have found a way to get Natasha off his back, AND get back at her once and for all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Get to Know the Band

**Author's Note:**

> This fic started out just as me writing a Marching Band AU for these dorks, because based on my own experiences I figured that their personalities would go well with this sort of a setting. Like almost everything I touch, however, it quickly turned into a SteveTony AU. Hope you enjoy it, this fic is really fun to write! (Also, I should note that the title is a joke based on the tags various people at my school used both ironically and unironically for this year's homecoming.)

Steve Rogers had been in his high school's band for all four of his years, now.  He had even preformed in parades with them for a couple of years in middle school, too.  The band had become a sort of second family to him, and he loved and appreciated every single member as such.  
  
However, he'd also become all too familiar with what he called "Bandie Culture."  Bandie Culture basically stated that most band members are, for some reason or another, social outcasts, and when you put all of these social outcasts together into one team, you tend to end up with a group of extremely eccentric people who aren't afraid in the slightest to let their hair down and be as outrageous as they please.  This usually results in varying levels of pandemonium, and therefore stress for their band director, Director Fury.  
  
So, because of this, Steve was never quite sure what sort of adventures or catastrophes he'd encounter when he entered the band classroom.  Once he'd walked in on Tony, Bruce, Clint, and Thor trying to see how many people they could stuff into an instrument locker. It was working well until Bruce started getting claustrophobic, and then they all had to pile out ASAP to give the poor guy some room to breathe.  Another time he entered and saw Clint climbing the lockers with a roll of scotch tape in hand and a determined look on his face.  When Steve inquired as to just what the hell Clint was doing, the underclassmen explained that he was taking Tony's sheet music and taping it to the ceiling of his locker so that the percussionist wouldn't be able to find it later on.  Steve simply shrugged and walked away, deciding not to get involved.  He had to admit, though, watching Tony scramble around later trying desperately to find his music before Director Fury yelled at him for losing it again was pretty funny.  What was less funny was watching Tony proceed to try to beat Clint with a music stand after he found out what he had done.  
  
This particular afternoon, Steve wandered into the practice room only to find several of his friends crowded around something in the middle of the floor.  "What's going on, guys?" he asked as he got closer, wondering if he even wanted to know the answer.  
  
"Thor bet Tasha five bucks that she can't fit into Bruce's tuba case, and he's about to be five dollars poorer," Clint answered, looking over his shoulder at Steve as he spoke, before turning his attention back to the case in front of him.  "Come on Tasha, show him how it's done!"  
  
"Barton, shut up!" Natasha answered, working on curling herself into the smallest, tightest ball she could manage.  
  
"Don't forget, Natasha, the parameters of our wager also state that you have to be able to fit with the case closed, too," Thor reminded her, folding his arms across his chest and smirking, despite the slight worry that his eyes betrayed.  
  
"Yeah yeah, I got it, Blondie."  Natasha squirmed just a little bit more before she settled on her position with a slight huff.  "Alright, Bruce, close the case," she demanded.  
  
"Are you guys really sure this is a good idea?" Bruce asked with a raised eyebrow.  
  
"Don't worry, I'll be fine!" Natasha told him with a self-assured smirk.  
  
Bruce shrugged.  "I'm sure you will be.  I'm not worried about you, though, I'm worried about my case.  I've still gotta put my tuba away, after all."  
  
"Just shut the damn case, Banner."  
  
Bruce obliged, and was just about to seal Natasha in when somebody shouted, _"Just what the hell are you all doing now?"_  
  
They all jumped at the sudden noise (aside from Natasha, who was dead-set on winning this bet and was not about to lose her current position) and turned around to see Coulson, Director Fury's teacher's aide, staring them down from the doorway.  He was basically in charge of keeping them all in line when Fury was off doing God-knows-what.  
  
"Hey, Phil," Steve greeted him, trying to diffuse the situation.  Coulson seemed to like Steve the most because he was the responsible one of the group, and tended to take charge when they got too rowdy.  Most of that came from being their field commander, though.  Often times Steve was just as incorrigible as the rest of the band.  
  
"Don't _'Hey Phil'_ me.  Answer the question, what the hell are you all doing crowded around Banner's tuba case?  Because I can't imagine that you're up to any good."  Coulson strode over to the students, and stopped just short of them, standing perfectly straight and stiff, looking down at them slightly.  They all suddenly felt themselves deflate a bit.  Coulson was a cool guy, but when it came to handling the rowdy group of young musicians he tended to do so firmly.  
  
Natasha popped out of the case, stretching as she did so.  Coulson barely raised an eyebrow at this occurrence.  He'd gotten used to their antics by now, and this frankly wasn't the worst thing he'd caught them doing.  
  
"Thor bet me five dollars that I couldn't fit in Bruce's tuba case, and I was proving him wrong," Natasha admitted as she crawled out.  
  
Coulson sighed and rolled his eyes.  "Stop messing with the band equipment, I don't want to explain to Fury that you broke anything doing something stupid again!"  
  
"But we were messing with the equipment for money!  We were learning economics!  Don't you want us to learn, Coulson?" Clint retorted, obviously trying to push Coulson's buttons.  
  
"Barton, I will stuff you in the percussion closet and lock you in there if I have to, I swear to God."  
  
"I doubt Tony would like opening that to find you in there, Clint," Bruce commented, smirking.  "He'd probably just shove you back in and walk away."  
  
Clint shrugged.  "As long as someone feeds me in there I'd be perfectly fine with it."  
  
Coulson looked over at Bruce at the mention of Tony's name.  "Speaking of Stark, where is he?  We need to be getting ready for the game already."  
  
"He's probably making out with this week's girlfriend," Clint commented. "The poor, unlucky woman."  
  
Natasha wrinkled her nose at this.  "Dammit Clint, I could have done without the mental image of Stark with his tongue down some poor woman's throat."  
  
Just then, as if on cue, Tony walked in through the door, then stopped short as it shut behind him, a little confused as to why everyone was staring at him.  "What?  What'd I do now?" he asked.  
  
"You're late.  Again." Coulson commented.  
  
"What?  No I'm not!  You said to be here at 5:15, and it's-"  
  
"5:32," Bruce supplied.  
  
"Wait, seriously?" Tony asked, before pulling out his phone and checking for himself.  "Well, I'll be damned.  It is 5:32."  He looked up and grimaced a little as he put his phone back in his pocket.  "Whoops."  
  
"Stark, if you're late one more time I _will_ make sure Director Fury demotes you from playing the quads to playing the triangle, do you understand?" Coulson asked, his eyes narrowing at the senior student.  
  
"Loud and clear, Sir," came Tony's reply, complete with a salute.  


* * *

  
  
"BLOOD MAKES THE GRASS GROW!  KILL, KILL, KILL!"  
  
"Clint, if you yell in my ear one more time I'll be watering the field with _your_ blood!" Natasha snarled, clamping her gloved hands over her ears and glaring in Clint's direction.  
  
"I don't think the grass really needs the blood, what with all the rain we're getting," Steve said, trying in vain to wipe rainwater off of his lamented sheet music.  
  
"Well, our team still needs to learn to tackle better," Bucky muttered from behind Steve.  Upon hearing his voice, Director Fury turned towards his direction immediately.  
  
"Barnes!  What the hell are you doing here?  You're not in the band!  Go sit with the other fans!" he yelled over the noise of the game.  
  
Bucky smirked.  "But Director!  I'm your band's mascot, remember?  Besides," he said as he lifted the empty left sleeve of his jacket with his right hand.  "I can't very well play in the band with only one arm, can I?"  
  
Fury rolled his eye and then glared at Bucky.  "Just don't distract these idiots too much, got it?"  
  
Bucky saluted.  "Sir, yes sir!"  
  
Steve smiled at Bucky.  "You're lucky he likes you, otherwise he would have grabbed one of Tony's mallets and hit you over the head until you left."  
  
Bucky shrugged.  "What can I say?  I'm a likable person."  
  
"Why aren't you using an umbrella back there, anyways?  Just because we're not allowed to doesn't mean you can't have one.  You could catch a cold in this weather."  
  
"One - Steve, not everyone has as shitty of an immune system as you did as a kid."  Steve pursed his lips at that, pouting slightly.  "And two - because I only have one arm!  ONE ARM, Steve!  If I were holding an umbrella, then I wouldn't have any hands open, and I'd be completely incapacitated!  And then who would catch the ball if it somehow came flying this way and straight towards your face?  Your nose could be crushed in, and then you wouldn't be pretty enough to be voted Homecoming King, and then it'd probably go to Stark, and NOBODY wants that-"  
  
"OKAY, I get it, you're a little shit.  Point made," Steve laughed at Bucky's rambling.  
  
"I HEARD THAT BARNES!"  
  
"STARK, PAY ATTENTION TO THE GAME!" Fury shouted back.  
  
Tony grumbled something to himself about a "dumb one-armed hobo kid" and turned his attention back to the field just in time to see the team make a touchdown.  
  
"Hell yeah!" Clint shouted before the entire band rose to their feet and played the fight song proudly.  
  
After the game resumed they all sat down, and Natasha turned around towards Steve.  She was wearing an impish grin, and Steve immediately stiffened, because in all his years of friendship with Natasha, he'd learned to fear that grin, as nothing good ever came of it.  
  
"Sooo..." she drawled, her smirk growing bigger.  
  
"So?" Steve asked cautiously in reply.

“Tread carefully, Stevie, I don’t trust that face,” Bucky muttered, plenty loud enough to be audible to Natasha.  Luckily for him, she decided to ignore it.  
  
"I couldn't help hearing Barnes mention Homecoming," she began, and Steve hung his head in exasperation.  
  
"Tasha not this again-"  
  
"All I'm saying is that you're pretty much a shoe-in to win Homecoming King, and it'd be absurd for the King to not have a date, and I just so happen to know of some people who also are yet to acquire dates.  I'd consider looking a few of them up if I were you."  
  
"Nat, I do not need you to run my love life-" Steve began, only to be cut off by Bucky.  
  
"Actually buddy, you kinda do, because you're sure as hell not running it yourself."  
  
Steve sent a venomous glare Bucky's way before looking back to Natasha.  "Besides, no one ever even asked if I want to be Homecoming King!"  
  
"Do you?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.  
  
"No!  I have more important things to do before the game than worrying about Homecoming Court!" he said, exasperated.  
  
"Well too bad.  Pretty much everyone's gonna vote for you," she said, rolling her eyes.  
  
"And why's that?" Steve asked.  
  
"Because you're you!" she said, gesturing to him.  "You're attractive, smart, funny, and have a great personality.  Face it Rogers, you're the total package."  
  
"Hate to say it, bud, but Tasha's right.  You grew out of your 'not-so-much-as-ugly-but-skinny-as-hell duckling' phase and left the rest of us in the dust," Bucky added to the conversation.  
  
"Hey, is Sam playing on the field right now?" Steve asked, trying to change the subject.  Natasha was having none of it, though.  
  
"I'm not done with you yet!  Just accept your fate, Rogers.  It'll be easier to focus on finding a date that way."  
  
Steve groaned and hung his head, rain pouring down his face.  He had a feeling that Natasha wouldn't let this go until he had a date to the dance that she deemed as acceptable.


	2. The Situation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha explains to Steve why she's so adamant that he find a Homecoming date, and Pepper and Tony help each other with homework.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On an unrelated note, did everyone watch Agent Carter last Tuesday? If not, YOU NEED TO OMG IT WAS THE BEST THING. The only thing that I'm disappointed in is that it won't be longer.
> 
> Now, without further ado, chapter two of this fanfic.

Most of the band was gathered in the band room, getting ready for warm up.  Thor, however,  was eyeing the bass drum case closest to him contemplatively before announcing, "I would wager twenty dollars that Natasha couldn't fit into her entire self into-"

"Oh hell no you are not doing that again," Coulson interrupted before Thor could even finish his thought.  "Thor, I will charge you for the damages if you end up breaking anything."

Thor shoulders slumped a little as he headed over to his locker to retrieve his instrument.  Just as he was pulling the cymbals out of their case, Bruce and Tony walked in, Bruce looking amused at something, and Tony looking slightly dazed and confused.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Steve asked upon seeing them.

"So the science club went down to the middle school to talk to the students about going into STEM fields, right?" Tony said.  Steve nodded.  "Well, while we were down there I asked this kid what he wanted to do when he grew up.  What was his name, Bruce?  Peter-something?"

"Quill," Bruce supplied, still smiling.  "His name was Peter Quill."

"Yeah, anyways, I asked this kid what he wanted to do when he grew up, and I shit you not, he literally chanted, 'KICK ASS, GO TO SPACE!  REPRESENT THE HUMAN RACE!'"  Bruce started to stifle a giggle and Tony simply shook his head.  "What the hell does that even mean?" he asked to himself.

Steve hid his own grin behind his hand and shrugged.  "No idea," he answered, unable to mask the amusement in his voice.

Tony simply shrugged.  "Well, kid's enthusiastic, I'll give him that."

"Everybody get out your instruments, we need to go over the music for the homecoming show!" Coulson announced.  "Come on, hustle!"

Steve stepped up to the front of the room to conduct.  When he looked to Natasha's section, however, he saw her glaring pointedly at him.  'FIND A DATE!' she mouthed, pointing to her wrist to mime that Steve was running out of time.  He did his best to ignore her, but he couldn't help but notice that as the band played she didn't glance down at her music once, and continued to stare him down throughout the entire class period.

Once class was over Steve tried to gather his stuff and run out as quickly as he could, but Natasha was obviously quicker, and already waiting for him at the door.  He tentatively approached her, like she was a dangerous animal that was ready to pounce at any moment.  That wasn’t far from the truth, because as soon as he got close enough she stood on her tiptoes and grabbed his ear, sharply pulling him down to her level.

"OW!  Nat, what the hell?" Steve demanded, alarmed.  "You're gonna tear my ear off-"

"If you don't ask someone to Homecoming by the end of the week I WILL ask someone for you!  Got it, Rogers?" she hissed into his aching ear, fingernails digging harshly into his skin.

"Okay okay geez just please let me go, holy shit!" Steve begged.  He was now starting to realize just how terrifying it truly was to be on Natasha's bad side.

She let go and patted his ear gingerly.  "Sorry to use so much force, Steve, but I'm afraid that if I'm too passive with you then you won't get your ass in gear."

"Yeah, and that'd be such a tragedy," Steve grumbled, rubbing his fingers against the indentations Natasha had made in his flesh with her nails.

She smacked his shoulder lightly and looked him in the eye.  "I'm serious.  Find a date or I'll get you one myself."

"Why are you so bent on getting me a date anyways?" Steve asked her.

"Because Pepper and I both want to double-date with someone this year, and we agreed that if you don't have anyone to bring in time, then we'll be going with Tony and whoever he brings, and I'd like to spend as little time with Stark as I need to," she admitted.

Steve raised an eyebrow.  "What's so bad with Tony?" he asked.  Natasha simply glared at him and he raised his arms in defense.  "Okay, okay, never mind."

Natasha rolled her eyes.  "I don't care if he's my girlfriend's best friend, he still annoys the hell out of me."

Steve shrugged and smiled a little.  "I dunno, that annoyance is part of his charm, though, isn't it?"

Natasha just shook her head.  "Keep talking like that, Steve, and I'll beat you up in an alleyway after school."

 

* * *

 

 

Pepper sighed and shook her head slightly.  "Tony, this mock business plan is terrible.  It has so many flaws, i'm not even sure where to begin critiquing, to be quite honest."

"No way, seriously?"  Tony reached for the paper to snatch it out of Pepper's hands, only for Pepper to move at the last moment to block him.

"Yes, seriously," she responded indignantly.  "I mean it's enough for a passing grade, sure.  But if you were to actually run a company like this it would probably take less than ten years to run it into the ground."

Tony sighed and rested his forehead on the cool surface of the table.  "Well, that's what I have you for, isn't it?  You've been fixing all my fuck-ups since we were toddlers."

Pepper hummed in agreement.  "And don't you forget it.  I doubt you'd know left from right without me."

Tony raised his head to reveal that his face was contorted in mock shock.  "How dare you make such an accusation, Miss Potts!  I should kick you out of my home for making such slanderous claims!"

Pepper laughed a little at Tony's reaction and nudged his shoulder playfully, knowing that her friend would never follow through with his threat.  "So..." she began, dragging out the "o."

"So...?" Tony mimicked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm assuming that you already have a date to Homecoming?" she asked, smirking a bit.  "Come on, you can tell me, who is it?"

Tony shrugged.  "No one, actually.  I was planning on going stag for senior year."

At this, Pepper smacked Tony with the paper that was still in her hand.  "Dammit, Tony!" she exclaimed.  Tony blinked in surprise at her outburst.

"Why is my lack of a date bothering you so much?" he asked confusedly.

Pepper sighed.  "Because Natasha and I want to double-date this year, and she wants to bring Steve, but we agreed that if he doesn't have a date in time, then I can bring you and your date."  She rested her chin on her hand, her elbow balancing on the table.  "But if Steve is out of the picture if he doesn't have anyone to bring, then I know there's no way in hell Natasha'll let you tag along without one!"

Tony laughed.  "Oh, Pepper, it's like you have no faith in me!  I can get a last-minute date, no problem!"  Now it was Pepper's turn to raise an eyebrow.  "Hey, don't give me that look!"

"So why does Tasha even-" she began.

"Hate me so much?" Tony provided.

Pepper shrugged.  "I was going to say 'avoid you,' but if that's the way you want to put it, okay."

Tony shrugged.  "No idea.  I think she thinks I'm annoying or something."

Pepper tried, and failed, to disguise her chuckle as a cough.  "Really?  Who'd ever think that?" she exclaimed, dipping her head to cover her smile.

Tony swatted playfully at Pepper's shoulder, which just caused the redhead to laugh even more.  "You're a bad friend, you know that?  I should ask Bruce if he wants to do homework with me from now on."

Pepper stifled her laughing enough to say, "Tony, no offense, but unless you pay Bruce, or at least let him have free reign of all of your scientific equipment, I don't think even he'd be able to put up with you for as long as I do."

"You really are a mean lady," Tony stated.  "Lord knows how we're still friends."

Pepper smiled and brought him in for a hug.  "Aw, Tones," she began, petting his head gently.  "Like I said, I'm the only person who can put up with you and your smartass for this long."

"Okay, keep pushing your luck Potts, and I really will kick you out!"


	3. The Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively titled; "Steve is a Little Shit." Steve hatches his plan to get Natasha back for her constant pestering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray for the plot picking up! This was originally supposed to be two separate chapters, but they were both really short, so I decided to combine them. I didn't proofread this one as much as I have with the others since I have a slight headache right now, but hopefully it's still just as good.

The next morning in homeroom Natasha slapped a poster onto Steve's desk, startling him awake.  He’d been dozing off due to a long night that had been spent tossing and turning, with little actual sleep being accomplished.  
  
"Told ya," Natasha said, dragging the chair from the seat in front of him closer and straddling it so that she could sit down and still look at him face-to-face.  
  
"Told me what?  What's this?" Steve questioned, still a little groggy.  When he read the title of the poster, however, it all came together, and he suddenly felt much more awake.  "Oh."  
  
The poster read, "Congratulations to this year's Homecoming Court!" and had his name listed under "King."  
  
"'Oh' is right.  I told you that you'd be king."  Natasha answered curtly.  "Remember, you've only got 'til the end of the week, and today's already Tuesday.  Otherwise, I'll be picking for you, and I already have a fairly long list of eligible ladies who'd just love a date with you."  
  
"Natasha..." Steve groaned, crossing his arms on top of the desk and burrowing his face into them so that it was hidden.  
  
"And guys.  I'm not being exclusive."  
  
Steve sighed and peaked out from under his arms.  "Seriously, what would be so awful with hanging out with Tony and his date for the evening?" he asked.  He was exhausted of Natasha's constant meddling in his love life.  "You're around him in band all the time!"  
  
"Exactly, I’m around him in band all the time and that’s the most I can put up with him before I feel like breaking his legs.”  Natasha tucked her hair behind her ear and then crossed her arms over the back of the chair.  “With how much you keep backing Tony up, one would think that you wanted to go with _him_ or something!”

Steve’s head snapped up at that accusation, and immediately Natasha recognized the look on Steve’s face as his “planning face.”  “No, Steve, that was a joke, whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it,” she pleaded, already regretting her choice of words.

Steve just smirked at her and stood up, choosing to ignore her and instead striding over to the other end of the room where Tony was talking to Pepper and Rhodey.  “Hey Tony, can I borrow you for a second?” he asked.

Tony shrugged and got up, following Steve to the corner of the room.  “What did you want to talk to me about?” he asked.

“Do you want to help me get back at Natasha for being an insanely huge nuisance to me lately?” he asked, his smirk still proudly set on his face.

 Tony frowned slightly.  “I’m not sure, I don’t know what you’re planning, and based on that face it can’t be any good.”

Steve waved his hand dismissively.  “It’s nothing devious or anything, it’s just that lately she’s been pushing for me to get a date to homecoming, since she has this deal with Pepper-“

“Yes, I’m aware of the deal, Pepper told me,” Tony cut in.

“Well, anyways, I’m tired of her pestering me about getting a date just because she doesn’t like you, so, I thought to myself, what would be the best way to subtly make her suffer, while also getting her off my back, and I’ve got it!”  Steve smirked down at Tony, very excited about his genius plan to make Natasha miserable.

Tony sighed, “What did you have in mind, then?”

“Will you come to homecoming as my date?” Steve asked, his smile never faltering.

Tony’s eyes widened in surprise.  “I’m sorry, what now?” he asked.

“Will you be my date to homecoming?” Steve repeated eagerly.  “Think about it, not only will this solve my problem of Natasha annoying me about getting a date, but it will also bug the hell out of her because she’ll have to spend the entire evening with you, no matter what!”

Tony stood there, mulling it over in his head for a moment.  “That does sound nice, plus it will make Pepper happy.”  He shrugged and then smiled.  “Sure, what the hell?  Yeah, Steve, I’ll be your date to homecoming.”

Steve beamed, and clapped Tony on the shoulder in a friendly gesture.  “Thanks, Tony, this’ll be fun.”

Tony nodded in agreement.  “Well, I’ll go tell Pepper the news, see ya later!” he said as he walked away towards his friends.

When Steve made his way back to Natasha, she was wearing a grim, sour face.  “I hate you, and everything you stand for, Rogers,” she hissed, glaring at him with enough venom in her eyes to kill a man.

Steve shrugged.  “It’s your fault for testing me like that,” he replied.  Natasha scoffed and turned away from Steve to face the front of the classroom, which Steve counted as a win.

* * *

 

The band was playing Beauty and the Beast for what felt like the twentieth time in a row when Steve signaled for them all to stop playing.  “Does anyone want to tell me why we keep getting off tempo?” he asked impatiently.

Tony raised his hand proudly, and answered before Steve could even acknowledge him.  “It’s because Barton’s deaf,” he answered in a matter-of-fact tone.  Other band members started nodding in agreement.

“That definitely sounds like the source of the problem,” Bruce agreed.

“Isn’t that _always_ our problem?” Natasha asked in response.

“Screw you guys, I can hear enough to know how terribly the rest of you are playing!” Clint hollered across the room in response.

Steve sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.  Not this argument again.  Starting Clint’s freshmen year, when everyone had found out that he was partially deaf, they’d started making it a running gag that “Clint’s deaf!” could be an excuse for anything.  It quickly became the band’s favorite scapegoat, and there were other jokes that were made about the saxophone-player’s disability all the time.  At first Steve had been worried that Clint might be offended by this, or that he may be putting on a brave face and just laughing it off despite feeling targeted, so he talked to him in private about it.  Luckily though, it seems that Clint genuinely thought the jokes were funny.  Sure, they were slightly annoying and over-used, but they didn’t really bother him.  That didn’t stop him from having snappy comebacks for all the jokes, though.*

“Alright, I can see that we’re going to get nowhere here for now,” Steve conceded.   “Let’s pack up and we can try going over this song again tomorrow.”

With that the room screeched with the sound of several people pushing their chairs back as they stood, and a murmur of discussion erupted between the students.  As Steve was putting his music away in his locker, Tony came up to him, drumsticks still in hand.

“Hey, can I talk to you real quick?” Tony asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Steve answered as he swung his locker shut.  “What is it?”

Tony shrugged.  “I wanted to know if you had any ideas about where you wanted to go out to eat before Homecoming.  Apparently Pepper wants us all to go to a nice restaurant together before the dance, and she gave me the task of polling everybody on where they want to go.”

Steve blinked a bit in surprise.  Huh, Natasha hadn’t mentioned anything about a dinner.  Knowing her, though, it had probably been her original plan to spring some surprise romantic evening on him and his date.  Steve really was loving how Natasha’s matchmaking plans were blowing up in her face.  “I guess anywhere’s fine with me,” he responded with a casual shrug.

Tony rolled his eyes.  “Steve, work with me here, I need names.  Pep’s not gonna let me off the hook with just a ‘whatever you want’ answer.  Just tell me your favorite restaurant and we’ll go from there.”

“Hmm…”  Steve thought for a moment.  “I guess I kind of like Olive Garden.  Wait, Tony, what’s wrong?”  Steve was alarmed by how quickly Tony’s face had fallen and shifted a few shades paler after he’d mentioned his favorite restaurant.  It looked like someone had stepped on his puppy right in front of his face.

“Steven Grant Rogers you have just personally insulted me by daring to mention the name of that place.”

“I- what?” Steve asked, thoroughly confused.

“That place is an insult to the mere idea of Italian cuisine, understand?” Tony asked, his face getting very serious.  If it weren’t over such a strangely trivial issue, Steve would be proud of Tony for being serious about anything for any amount of time.

“Um, I’m sorry, I guess?” Steve apologized unsurely.  He wasn’t sure exactly what he was supposed to be doing in this situation.

After holding his serious gaze for just a couple seconds more, Tony’s face fall into laughter.  “Oh my gosh Rogers, your face was hilarious!” he breathed, still catching his breath from his sudden laughing fit.  He then looped his arm around Steve’s broad shoulders and leaned against him.  “Don’t worry, I was only joking.  Well, partially, I was partially joking.  Olive Garden still really sucks.”

“Oh, um, well that’s good.” Steve responded, still very confused.

Tony let go of Steve and patted his shoulder.  “Don’t worry man, I’m going to make sure that I take you to the nicest _real_ Italian restaurant in the city.  Then you’ll realize how crappy Olive Garden is, too.”

Steve smiled at Tony’s offer.  “That sounds nice, Tony.”

Tony smiled back.  “Good, I’ll let Pepper know.  See ya later!” he said as he waved, going over to his locker to put his drum and stick away.

Shortly after this Natasha came sauntering up to Steve.  She leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder in a huff.  “I swear, if you two are going to be flirting like that during the entire dance I am going to poison my own drink,” she said sourly.

Steve started a bit at her sudden presence.  “What flirting?” he questioned.

Natasha simply rolled her eyes.  “The flirting you were just doing like five seconds ago, Mr. Heart-Eyes.”

Steve frowned and shrugged Natasha off of his shoulder.  “We were not flirting, Nat, we were just making dinner plans for the dance.”  Natasha raised her eyebrows and gave Steve an accusatory look.  “Oh my God, we were flirting.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *I just want to clarify that I am NOT MAKING FUN OF CLINT’S DISABILITY I WOULD NEVER DO THAT, AS I AM NOT AN AWFUL PERSON. This is a reference to one of my friends in my band, who has one deaf ear, and we constantly make jokes about it, but, like Clint, he’s fine with it as long as we don’t go too far, because he knows we don’t really mean it.
> 
> As always, if you like this fic remember to leave kudos, and comments are always appreciated, too!


	4. Realizations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper helps Tony work on homework and some other issues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO INCREDIBLY SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING LAST WEEK! I was busy for most of the week and I hit a block for the chapter after this one, so I was afraid to post something and not have anything prepared for the next week. I hope this chapter is good enough to make up for it! So, without any further delay, here it is!

Tony walked in to his kitchen to find Pepper already sitting there with her homework spread out around her on the counter.  The scene looked almost like a miniature explosion of paper had happened, with her at the epicenter.  “No, don’t wait up for me, I’m fine,” he joked as he tossed his book bag onto the floor and took a seat on the stool beside her.

Pepper looked up at him and smiled.  “Sorry, but I have a crazy amount of homework to get done in a short amount of time, and I needed to get started ASAP.  No time to wait for stragglers like you.”  With that she turned back to the assignment in front of her, tapping her pencil rhythmically against the countertop as she tried to concentrate.

“How did you even get in here?” he questioned.

“Jarvis let me in,” she commented, suppressing a yawn that threatened to take over her as she spoke.  “I think he likes me, he told me that he wishes you took your studies as seriously as I take mine.”

“Hey, I take my studies plenty seriously!” He said, flicking the back of Pepper’s head playfully as he reached over to pick up some of her papers.  “I just know when to stop have fun, too!  What all do you even have, anyways?” he wondered out loud.

She took a deep breath.  “Two essays for English that are both due Thursday, three lab reports for chemistry that are due Monday, a paper for psychology due tomorrow, and 20 pre-calc problems that are due Friday.”  Pepper sighed heavily after she finished listing off the assignments and looked over to Tony.  “Remind me again why I decided it’d be a good idea to take all of these AP classes in one year?”

Tony shrugged.  “Because you’re basically Superwoman, and if anyone could handle it, it’d be you?” he offered.  “Oh, I’ve got some good news for you, though, I know where we’re going for dinner for homecoming!”

Pepper raised an eyebrow before glancing back down to her work.  “Oh?” she asked.

Tony nodded.  “Yeah, I talked to Steve-“

“Of course you did.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, keep going,” Pepper waved at him to continue as she stifled the slight smile that threatened to blossom across her face while Tony eyed her suspiciously.

“Okay…” Tony drawled, extending the syllables of the word.  “Anyways, like I said, I asked him where he wanted to go, and he said Olive Garden!  Can you believe it, Pep?  Olive Garden!”

“Oh the humanity,” Pepper responded dryly.

“Yeah, so basically I told him how that place is utter crap, and that I’m going to show him what real Italian food is like.  I’m thinking that we can go to _La Casa Piccola_?”

Pepper hummed in agreement.  “Mhm, I’m sure he’d just _love_ that place.”

Tony’s expression soured slightly.  “See, there you go sounding like you’re insinuating something again.  Just what are you trying to imply, Miss Potts?”

Pepper’s lips turned up slightly into a ghost of a smirk.  “Nothing, it’s just Natasha already told me about your little discussion, and how it sounded just slightly _flirty_ , that’s all.”

Tony wasn’t quite sure how to react to that accusation.

“I…what?” Tony stammered.

Pepper nodded.  “What’s the big surprise?  You’re flirty nearly all the time to everybody.  I didn’t think this would really come as a shocker.”

“Yeah, I’m flirty with people I’m interested in and I think I have a chance with,” Tony shrugged.  “But _Steve?_ ”

Pepper’s face suddenly fell with surprise.  “Wait, you mean you haven’t noticed?” she inquired.

“Noticed _what?_ ” Tony exclaimed, his voice rising in volume and pitch the more frustrated and confused he became.

Pepper laughed, and didn’t even bother to try to hide it.  “Oh my God, you actually haven’t noticed your own massive crush on Steve.”  She suddenly dove into her pocket, searching for her phone.  “One moment, I need to text Rhodey.  This is perfect!”  Before she could start her message, however, Tony’s hand shot out to grab her wrist.

“Wait a minute, there’s no need to involve him just yet, what crush are you even talking about?”  Tony removed his hand from Pepper’s and crossed his arms across his chest defensively.  “I don’t have a crush on Steve!”

Giving him a sarcastic, knowing glance, Pepper put her phone down on the counter and mimicked Tony’s stance.  “Oh really?  Then would you care to explain why in your marching band photos Steve is the main focal point of more than half of them?”

Tony scoffed at her question.  “Um, obviously because he’s field commander, and I know the yearbook probably wants more shots of him than of the annoying little freshmen members?”

“Mhm,” Pepper responded, obviously not impressed.  “And why you always end up talking about him in some way or another whenever we’re together?”

“Oh come on!  He’s my friend!  Of course he’s going to come up from time to time!  I mention you a lot to him, too!”

Pepper raised an eyebrow skeptically.  “But every single time?”

Tony was quiet for a moment.  “Well…no, not _every_ time…”

Pepper flashed a quick smile.  “Uh huh, and how about how eager you were when you came up to tell me who you were going to homecoming with?”

“Hey, I was just really excited about rubbing Romanoff’s face in it, that’s all!”

“Oh really, that’s all?”  Pepper questioned.  “What about how you then immediately started to take charge of planning the whole evening, going into detail about what restaurant you wanted us to go to, what time we should all meet up, where we’re taking pictures, which suit you should wear, if you and Steve should wear matching ties…”

“Okay, I get it!” Tony interjected, cutting off Pepper’s list.  He sighed and played with a nearby eraser a little, looking down before conceding, “I guess I might have a slight crush on Steve.”

Pepper smiled victoriously, then moved in to hug Tony.  “I’m so proud of you, Tony!  The first step is admitting you have a problem.”

Tony rolled his eyes and begrudgingly accepted the hug.  “Yeah yeah, what’s the second step?”

Pepper took a step back and looked at Tony from an arm’s length.  “The next step,” she said with conviction.  “Is getting Steve to dance with you at homecoming.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave kudos, comments, criticism, etc. You know the drill!


	5. Don't Freak Out (Okay Maybe a Little)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both Steve and Tony seek guidance from their friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY FOR BEING LATE AGAIN. At least this time it was only a day? Sorry, I was busy with things and I forgot until late last night yesterday. But I'm here now.

Natasha, Sam, and Bucky were sat on the couch in Steve’s living room while he paced in front of them nervously.   “Okay guys, I need your advice,” he said.

“Oh, this has gotta be good,” Sam commented, leaning back and crossing his arms behind his head.

Steve sighed.  “It’s been brought to my attention by certain parties,” he shot a look at Natasha, who looked completely unapologetic. “That I may have been flirting with Tony earlier today.”

Sam raised an eyebrow.  “So...?”

“So, Tony’s one of my best friends, and I don’t want to ruin that!” Steve exclaimed, clearly frustrated.

Bucky raised his hand.  “Um, question, aren’t you going to homecoming with him?”

“So you’re starting to see the other part of my problem?” Steve asked him.

Natasha shrugged and muttered, “I know one way you could fix that…”

“Natasha, I am not un-inviting him to homecoming,” Steve said, shooting her an annoyed glance.

She raised her hands defensively.  “Alright, it was just a suggestion, calm down Blondie.”

“Steve, I don’t get why you’re making such a big deal out of this, why don’t you just go with it and see what happens?” Sam offered.  Bucky shook his head and turned to him.

“You don’t understand Sammy, Steve here has a massive fear of rejection,” he said.  “What ‘I’m afraid of ruining our friendship’ really means is, ‘I’m afraid of liking him because I’ve convinced myself that he won’t like me back.’”

“That’s not even remotely true!” Steve said hastily, halting his pacing to look at his friends.

“Buddy, you’re a terrible liar,” Natasha said dryly.

Steve crossed his arms, “Alright, so what if that really is what I mean, what’s so bad about it?  I don’t want to make things awkward between us if it turns out I’m right!”

“Well, for starters you’ll never find out if he actually feels the same for you,” Bucky offered.  Steve scoffed.  “Which, if what Nat told us about you two flirting earlier is true, he probably does.”

Steve turned to Natasha, looking betrayed.  “You told them about that?”

Natasha shrugged as she reclined back on the couch.  “It might have come up in ninth period while we working on homework.”

Steve frowned.  “I’m suddenly less comfortable with you guys all having class together without me if I happen to be a common topic of gossip.”

“Don’t worry, you only come up every once in a while,” Sam offered teasingly.  “But seriously, Bucky has a point, if he was flirting with you earlier, then it’s probably mutual.  In fact, I bet he’s freaking out about the same thing right now.”

Steve sighed as he sat down on the edge of the coffee table in front of the couch.  “I doubt it.”

* * *

 

“Are you crazy, Pepper?” Tony exclaimed, shrugging out of her hug and taking a step back.  “A guy just realizes that he has a crush on one of his best friends and you’re immediately pushing him into a relationship?”

Pepper rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips.  “I’m not pushing you into a relationship, Tony, I said you should dance with him at homecoming.  You’re the one making the huge jump from dancing to domesticity.”

“Well, I…” Tony started, trying to cover his tracks.

“It doesn’t even have to be romantically-coded, necessarily.  Plenty of friends dance together.”

“Well, how would I even approach asking him to dance, then?” he asked with a slight nervousness about him.  It was a vulnerability that Tony hardly ever let show, even to Pepper.

“Wow, I’d figure you’d have more experience in this stuff than me,” she exclaimed, slightly surprised.

“I’m more used to casual hookups than romancing, Pep!” he exclaimed.  “I’m a little out of my depth here!”

Pepper sighed and reached out to put a comforting hand on Tony’s shoulder.  “Alright, how about this; during a slow song you and I start dancing as friends, and halfway I switch to dancing with Tasha and you ask Steve to pick back up where I left you.  Does that sound like a good plan?”

“It’s better than any plan I can come up with right now,” Tony answer, relaxing under Pepper’s touch.  “Thanks for helping me out, Pepper-Pot.”

Pepper smiled at the nickname.  “What are friends for, if not helping their emotionally-constipated friends deal with their crushes?”

Tony grinned.  “Alright, that’s it, now you’re officially kicked out!  Come on, let’s go!” he exclaimed as he spun Pepper around and started shoving half-heartedly at her shoulders towards the direction of the door.  The friends laughed as they struggled against each other, both homework and crushes forgotten for a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm going to be honest, I don't really have anything written for the next chapter because I have a few extracurriculars that are taking up a lot of time, and I also have a crazy new student teacher in English who thinks that the only thing we have to do with our time out of school is read and analyze the finer details of Lord of the Flies. I'm actually supposed to be doing that right now. So bear with me if I'm a little late for the next chapter. It will be coming, but I need to figure out how to manage my time so that I can write more.
> 
> As always, feedback and ideas are greatly accepted! Thank you for reading, and for putting up with my frankly abhorrent schedule.


	6. Student Teachers are Pure Evil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the crushing band nerds start acting a little awkward around each other, Natasha starts acting more irritable than usual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT BUT I HAD WRITER'S BLOCK LIKE YOU WOULDN'T EVEN IMAGINE! As a consolation, this chapter is a fairly long one. All of the progress I made on finishing this chapter is all thanks to my lovely beta, Tumblr user [the-tragedy-of-ana](the-tragedy-of-ana.tumblr.com) ! Thank you so much for your help!

The next day at school, Steve made it a point to avoid Tony during homeroom.  He had planned on doing it for the rest of the day; however, Natasha caught on pretty quickly to what he was doing, and decided to put a stop to it.

“I know what you’re up to, Rogers, and it ends now,” she spoke up from behind him in the hallway.

Steve slightly jumped, unaware of her presence.  Even if her small frame didn’t show it, Natasha was a severely dangerous person to anger, and he’d witnessed enough unfortunate ‘accidents’ to be a little fearful of his friend.

“What are you talking about now, Nat?” Steve asked, trying to act more casual than he actually was.

“Mhm, yeah, that’s not gonna work on me,” Natasha said. She scoffed; offended he would even try to lie to her.  She quickened her pace so that she was walking right beside Steve.  “I’m not gonna beat around the bush, Steve, stop ignoring Tony or I’ll be forced to take drastic measures, okay?”

 “I though you didn’t like Tony. Why are you riding my ass for ignoring him now?”  Steve asked, confused at her forcefulness.

Her answer was frank and blunt.  “Because you’re acting like a shy middle schooler with a crush, and it’s honestly getting sickening to look at.”  Natasha glared up at Steve with an angry glint in her eye.  “Also, if you act this awkward around him at homecoming you’re going to make the entire dance annoying as hell for everyone who’s forced to be in your presence.  So knock it off.”

Steve sighed heavily as he walked into his next classroom.  “I just can’t win with you, can I?” he asked.

Natasha gave him a condescending look as she followed him in.  “Stevie, how long have we been friends?  You should know by now, of course you can’t.”

Steve gave a dry laugh.  “Yeah, true.”

“Doesn’t mean you should stop trying to please me, though, it’s still in the best interest for everyone around to stay on my good side.”

Steve just grinned and nudged Natasha out the door playfully.  “Just get to class, you loser.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Tony, are you distracted?”

“Huh?” Tony said, looking up from his chemistry paper and turning to Bruce.  “Why would you ask that?” he asked.

“Because if you mixed those chemicals, you’d kill everyone in this room from the poisonous gas reaction,” Bruce responded, pointing to the data written on Tony’s paper.

“Shit!” Tony exclaimed, quickly moving to erase the mistake.

“Mhm, so like I said, are you distracted by anything right now?” he asked again, leaning slightly towards Tony.

“No, Bruce, I’m perfectly fine, I just made a mistake!  Let’s move on to the next question, okay?” Tony answered, getting slightly agitated.

“I’m actually already finished,” Bruce replied coolly, ignoring Tony’s snappy behavior, as he was fairly used to it by now.

“What?” Tony exclaimed in surprise.  It was a hard assignment, and he’d assumed Bruce was struggling just as much as he was.

“Yeah, that’s why I’m asking if you’ve got anything else on you mind.  You know what we’ve learned over the years, Tony, no sciencing while distracted, otherwise bad things happen.”

“Like that time you accidentally dyed yourself green for a couple weeks?” Tony offered, trying to change the subject.

“Hey, I’m not the one we’re talking about right now!” Bruce bristled.

Tony sighed.  "Bruce, I am not distracted!" he insisted, turning back to his paper.

Bruce shrugged.  "Alright man, I just thought that I could help you if you needed it." It was subtle, but Tony could see Bruce’s shoulders slump as he leaned away.  Tony sighed.  The last thing he wanted was Bruce thinking he was shutting him out.  Plus, he guessed he could use all the help that he could get right now.

“Alright, I’ll tell you,” Tony said, leaning in closer for privacy.  “But don’t you dare breathe word of what I’m about to say to anyone else.

Bruce perked up just barely noticeably at Tony’s decision.  “I promise,” he assured him, also leaning in again.

Tony sighed.  "So, say that, hypothetically, somebody recently realized that they have a crush on a close friend.  And that said person is going to homecoming with that friend, but only as a friend.  And that they don't want to bring it up to their friend because they don't want to make things awkward, but at the same time they want to know if that friend feels the same way.  What would you do about that?"

Bruce eyed Tony for a beat, before responding, "You're in deep for Steve, aren't you?"

Tony put his hands up in defense.  "Ah ah, not me and Steve, a hypothetical someone and their friend," he insisted.  "Let's not start making assumptions!"

Bruce rolled his eyes.  “Right, sorry.”  He pondered the question for a moment, before responding, “Well, why don’t you tell this hypothetical person that they should just go to homecoming and have fun with their friend, and try to gauge the situation from there.  There’s no need to psyche yourself out before you even have any more information.”

Tony considered this, and then nodded.  “Right, thanks Bruce.”  He flashed him a quick smirk.  “I’ll be sure to let the hypothetical someone know what you said.”

Bruce smiled in response.  “Happy to help.  Now let’s help you with your homework.”

Tony swatted his hands away from his paper.  “Hey, no, I am fine on my own, you back off!” he insisted.

 

* * *

 

 

“I’m going to rip her hair extensions out with my bare hands and then tear out the pages of the book, shove ‘em down her throat, and choke her with them!  And then I’m going to dance on her fucking corpse!”

When Steve walked in to the band room to hear Natasha shrieking about someone, he had to fight every strong urge he had to immediately turn around and walk back out.  However, he could see Clint nodding along to what Natasha was saying, and even Thor seemed to be considering this extreme act of violence. 

“What the hell are you yelling about, Nat?” Steve asked, slightly concerned.

Natasha turned to him with fire in her eyes.  “Riker!”  She spit the name out with such venom that it sounded as if it had left a bad taste in her mouth.  “Do you want to know what that awful woman did now?”

Steve eyed her wearily.  “I don’t know, do I?”

“She assigned us a paper yesterday that’s due tomorrow, and apparently that wasn’t enough, because now she’s assigned two more papers that are also due tomorrow!”

Steve stilled for a moment.  “That’s…”

“Asinine?  Crazy?  Idiotic?  Generally bad teaching?” Natasha bit back quickly.  “I have more, should I keep going?”

“No, I think you’ve covered it for the most part, thank you.” Steve shook his head.  “Seriously, though, does she not think that you have other homework or extracurriculars to do?”

Clint shrugged.  “Apparently not.  Nevermind the fact that we have band practice tonight, too.”

“I’m literally going to hand in one paper as just the word ‘NO’ written in bold font across the whole page,” Natasha responded.  She then immediately turned to Steve, who had opened his mouth to speak.  “And don’t you dare try to convince me not to.  I don’t even care anymore, she’s the worst student teacher I’ve ever had the misfortune of having to endure.”

“Okay, okay.”  Steve put his hands up in defense.  “Why not try to talk to her and see why she assigned so much work from one day to another?” he asked, trying to calm down his friend and reach a happy compromise.

Natasha looked him dead in the eyes.  “No,” she said.

“What if you go as the leader of the band as say that since we have so much practice for homecoming that it’s not physically possible to complete so much work one day for the next?” Clint asked of Steve, also trying to diffuse the ticking time bomb that was the tiny redheaded flute player.

“Aye, even she has to accept such a noble cause as an excuse!” Thor said.

Natasha just shrugged violently and threw the bag over her shoulder.  “Do what you can. Try to knock some sense into her.  Whatever.”  She then stalked off to her instrument locker, taking the violent aura with her.

Steve turned to Clint with a slightly scared and bewildered expression.  “That can’t be all from just the one class.   What else has her so stressed?” he asked.

Clint nodded and opened his mouth to explain, but then hesitantly closed it.  Steve and Thor both looked at him as he thought for a second and then said, “She’s just stressed because of Tony and Homecoming.”

His statement only proceeded to confuse Steve even more. “Tony? Why would he be stressing her out?”

Clint sighed, setting his bag down by Natasha’s.  “It’s not really my place to say.  I already tried to talk her down earlier.”

“It doesn’t seem to be working,” Thor offered.

“Yes, thank you, I couldn’t see that myself,” Clint sneered sarcastically.  He then turned to Steve.  “You might want to look into my suggestion about talking to Riker, though.  Not having those assignments hanging over her head might take a little bit of the load off.”

Steve nodded, eager to help his friend.  “Yeah, I’ll do that.  Maybe I can get Coulson to come with me so it won’t just look like a bunch of students whining about homework.”

 

* * *

 

 

When band class was over, Steve immediately went over to Coulson to ask him about Riker, but unfortunately he got turned down.

“Sorry Steve, I’d love to help, but I’ve got a lot of stuff to get ready right now before practice,” he answered.  “Maybe you can take someone else?  Like…” he scanned the room quickly, and his eyes immediately fell on Tony, who was trying to test his drumstick twirling skills in the middle of the room.  “Stark!  Why don’t you follow Steve down to Riker’s room?”

Coulson’s loud, barking tone made Tony drop the sticks in surprise, and they fell to the floor with a loud clatter.  “What?’ he questioned as he bent down to pick up the sticks.

“I want to talk to Miss Riker about the homework load she’s been giving some of the students, because it’s nearly impossible to do with all the practicing we’re doing for homecoming,” Steve replied.  “And if I have someone else go with me, I think it might help.”

Tony considered this for a moment.  “And you think I’m the best person to accompany you for this?  I mean, I don’t even have any of her classes.”

Steve shrugged.  “Neither do I, but I’m still going.  And it’s better than just going alone!”  He then flashed a mischievous smirk.  “And, the fact that she’s never had you in class might be a good thing, because that way she doesn’t know you well enough to not trust you.”

Tony rolled his eyes and ignored the slight twinge he got in his gut from that grin.  “Yeah, yeah, wise guy, let’s just get going.”

They then filed out of the band room, Tony following Steve.  The walk through the halls to the English classroom was filled with an awkward silence where a constant reel of snark normally was.  Both boys pretended not to notice, but it was painfully obvious.  Tony tried to focus instead on the various flyers hanging in the hallways, advertising things like driving school, tutoring sessions, and discount prom dresses (because, as the flyer said, it was never too early in the year to get prepared!).  It worked for the most part, and after what only felt like an hour he found himself standing in front of the room that had “Miss Vonn” printed on the room number plate.

Miss Vonn was the teacher that Riker was a student teacher for.  The woman was notorious for having little to no order or authority in her classes, so it made sense that the college senior was basically given free rein to terrorize as many students as she so chose.  Pepper had an advanced English class with her, and she constantly complained to Tony about the ridiculous work load that Riker would dump on them.  Frankly, Tony was glad that he might be able to help diffuse the situation.

Steve knocked on the door, and soon after it opened, revealing a young woman with extremely curly, mousy-blonde hair.  “Hello, what can I do for you boys?” she asked.  Even though Tony had never personally met her, there was something about her overly-cheery tone that sounded like nails on a chalkboard, and he immediately decided that he didn’t like her.

“Miss Riker?” Steve asked.  The woman nodded in response.  “We were wondering if we could have a word with you real quick?” he asked politely.

Riker nodded and stepped aside to let them in.  “Of course, come in.”  She smiled, but for some reason there seemed to be no real warmth in it.  She walked towards her desk and the boys followed her, dodging the desks that had been misplaced around the room throughout the school day.  She sat down behind her desk, and they stood in front of her.  Vaguely Tony felt as if he were being reprimanded for something, even though as far as he knew he hadn’t done anything wrong.  “What can I do for you two?” she asked, her expressionless smile still plastered to her face.

Steve nervously cleared his throat.  “I’m Steve Rogers, the marching band’s field commander, and this is Tony Stark, and we wanted to talk to you on behalf of some of your students who are also in the band,” he began.

“Mhm,” Riker mumbled, listening.  She didn’t seem very pleased with them already, but frankly from what he’d seen, Tony assumed that was her default expression.

“The thing is, we’ve been practicing a lot for the homecoming game.  We’ve been going over a whole new halftime show this entire week, and we’ve just started learning our formations for when we transition for the Homecoming Court to walk across the field.”  Steve was visibly growing more and more confident in his words as he continued on.  “It’s been a lot of work, and with that, other extracurriculars, jobs, and homework, some of the students are finding that they don’t have enough time to complete all of the tasks being requested of them.  And a lot of them are citing the workload from this particular class as a big contributor.”  At this point Steve looked perfectly sincere and strong in his words, while still seeming diplomatic, and Tony couldn’t help but marvel a little at his ability to respect and question authority all at the same time.  “So, we were wondering if maybe you would consider lowering the amount of assignments you give out, at least until after homecoming is done.”  Steve finished strong, and Tony couldn’t help but feel assured that his little speech would win them favor that they’d requested.

Riker, however, just frowned and replied, “No.”

Steve blinked back a moment of confusion.  “I’m sorry?” he asked.

“I said, no,” she responded, her voice still that strange cheery octave, but also cold at the same time.  “This is my classroom for the time being, and I will run it as I see fit, do you understand?”

It was at that moment that Tony realized why he instinctively didn’t like her.  The entire time they had been there she had been talking down to them, in a manner that insinuated that they were much younger and more naive than her, instead of the reality that they were only about four years apart in age.  And if there was one thing Tony hated, it was being talked down to.

“Except it’s not really your classroom, is it?” Tony interjected, ignoring the sharp look Steve sent in his direction.

“Excuse me?” Riker asked, turning towards him in such a quick manner that it sent her mousy curls flying.

A smart man who knew what boundaries to push would stop there, but Tony never really considered those boundaries to be all that important.  “I mean, this is still Miss Vonn’s class, you just have permission to use it as a simulation class for your final grade.  You should still take your students’ health and wellbeing into account when making decisions like this, don’t you think?”

“Tony!” Steve hissed, trying to signal him to stop.  But it was too late, Tony had already crossed a line, and there was no way he was going to chicken out now and admit defeat.

“Studies have shown that students perform better when they’re well rested and able to participate in activities that they enjoy, so if your main goal is to maintain a higher grade average in your classes, I’d suggest actually listening to them when they tell you that the workload is too much.”  He then shrugged and flashed a condescending smile.  “Just a suggestion,” He added for good measure.

The rage in Riker’s face was evident, and all semblance of the fake cheer that she had previously been sporting was gone.  “I do not get told what to do by high school students, young man!  Now, I’d suggest you boys both leave my room this instant!”  She practically spat the words at them, and Tony couldn’t help but feel a little accomplished at that reaction.

“’Young man’? I’m barely four years younger than you!” he called over his shoulder as he and Steve turned to leave.  This just caused Steve to push Tony forward quicker.

Once they were out of the classroom Steve sighed heavily as he began to walk away.  “Well, that went well,” he muttered.

Tony nodded in agreement, following him.  “Yeah, I get why Pepper hates her so much, now.  She’s got some serious issues.”

“Yes, and you helped so well,” Steve commented dryly.  He then gave a slight smile.  “But, what you said was pretty important.  Someone had to say it.”

Tony smiled back.  “Thanks,” he said.  “I doubt she’ll actually listen to any of it, though.”

“No, I don’t suppose she will,” he agreed solemnly.  “At least we tried, though.”  He then perked up suddenly.  “Oh, I almost forgot, I was supposed to tell you something about the dance this Saturday!”

“Oh?” Tony asked, concealing the slight excitement and nervousness he got from hearing Steve mention the dance.

“Yeah, my ma wanted me to tell you, Nat, and Pepper that before we go we need to at least stop by my house so that she can take pictures of us all together.”  He then laughed a little, and said, “Actually, her exact words were, ‘If you and your friends don’t give me a chance to see how beautiful and handsome you all look and preserve the moment before you go running off then I will personally drive myself over to the dance, drag you all out one by one, and take pictures of you outside the school myself!’”

Tony burst out laughing at the mental image of Steve’s sweet mother speaking that threat.  “Really, she said that?” he asked

Steve shrugged, still grinning.  “What can I say, she’s a sentimental person.”

“Fair enough.”  They had found themselves back at the band room already, and Tony stopped just short of the door, extending his hand for Steve to shake.  “Then I promise, to Mrs. Rogers, that we will all meet at your house at six o’clock, on the dot, for pictures.”

Steve took Tony’s hand and gave it a firm shake.  “And then we go out to eat?” he asked.

Tony laughed.  “And then, we go out to eat.”

If either boy noticed how the handshake lingered for longer than it probably should, they didn’t comment on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As with the last chapter, I'm not sure when the next chapter will be done, as I've not had much free time with schoolwork, play practice, etc. Please be patient with me, I fully intend on finishing this fic. I'm actually also planning some one-shots that take place in the same universe, and possibly a prequel telling Nat and Pepper's story. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, be sure to let me know! Also, don't forget that my tumblr is [margaret-peggycarter](margaret-peggycarter.tumblr.com) .
> 
> Also, I should note that all similarities between certain characters in this fic and real people are COMPLETELY coincidental. Entirely. Not based on anyone I actually know at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading the first chapter fo this fic! I have some of it written already in advance, and I hope to be able to update once a week. Please leave kudos and/or a review if you like it so far, as this is my first time officially writing a Marvel fic, and I'd love feedback!


End file.
